Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-05-05
a CARNIVAL OF DEATH.
Some of the Horrors of the Famine Pre-
vailins in India in 1S7S-T9.

Some of the Horrors of the Famine Pre-
vailing in India In 1S78-f0.
After being delayed a week at Jooty,
where at the Government expense !
lived sumptuously, | was ordered to
Madras, where | did not fare SO well,
but was finally ordered to Tinnevelly,
the most southern state in all India
From thence | was sent to Ootipa-
daram, where the collector had estab-
lished huge camp, and where ten
thousand to twelve thousand paupers
were being fed. The village of Ooti-
padaram sits on huge treeless plain,
which plain in better years raised vast
amounts of grain, and the village was
the most thriving of that district. But
now its rich Brahmins were dead.
Used to life of ease and plenty, they
had been the first to succumb to want
and privation, and there in their
houses with their hands clasped
across their knees, or writhing
on the floor in agony, they had
gasped out their breath calling on God
for succor. Women who were once
beautiful lay dead with their children
in their arms, and on the putrid bodies
-on the grim skeletons-lay golden
anklets, bracelets, earrings and the
fine golden platter which adorns the
wealthy Brahmin woman's head
Jewels fit for crowned heads lay scat
tered about-jewels which had been
offered for handful of millet, and had
been refused, and through all this
gloom and misery stalked the profess
sional beggar, poking and prying to
find something with which to stay the
gnawing at his vitals.
There were thousands of human be-
ings busy making the camp, and very
little food. But the grain was
coming, coming as fast as oxen
could drag it, and the many hungry
people, elated with hope, strug-
gled bravely against death. In all that
vast and starving crowd there was no
murmur. Once or twice an importun-
ate woman would catch my leg and
ask whether 1t were true that the grain
was coming No shudder of horror
electrified their frames when thrice
each day the carts laden with dead
would pass from out of the camp and
dump the bodies in the long trenches.
At last the grain train came. Every
pauper outside the camp was driven in
and securely locked up within the fence.
The grain was unloaded-but the
food they so anxiously wanted to cal
was denied many a one. The strain
in many instances was too great The
| joywas too violent, and in sight Of
plenty they died. And after the arriva
of the grain the camp was organized
and two daily doles were made-on,
in the morning and one in the evening
The dole consisted of rice and chile
water, and after the first days food thu
mortality I'D tne camp was lrlSnulul
1t rose to over one thousand a day
The paupers were ranged in long lines
each was furnished with platter, intC
which was thrown the rice and thel
sprinkled with chile water. Ere thu
hand could convey the food to the
mouth the expectant eater would bC
dead; Others whilst gulping down thei
food would be seized with convulsions
some who had finished their rice would
linger an hour CT so, their stomach
swollen to an incredible size, and di
raving maniacs; some would dash thei
heads against the ground delirious from
joy. In every horrid shape stood dealt
death in every revolving and hideou
form. Cor San Francisco Chronicle.